A celebration of Jeff Sauer’s life will be held Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the Kohl Center in Madison. The 73-year-old former Wisconsin Badger hockey coach passed away Feb. 2 in Madison.
Sauer coached hockey for 11 years at Colorado College (his alma mater), before returning to Wisconsin, where he previously had served as an assistant coach. In 20 seasons as the head coach of the Badgers, Sauer won 489 games and two national titles. His Badgers appeared in the NCAA tournament 12 times.
In 2011, Sauer was named head coach of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team. In his six seasons as coach, he won titles in seven major international events, including a gold medal at the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.
As a member of USA Hockey’s International Council and Disabled Hockey Committee, Sauer was president of the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association. He helped select the last six U.S. Deaflympic Ice Hockey Teams while leading the team as head coach in the last four Winter Deaflympics.